direction, where the inhabitants employed beasts of burden. To prove his statement the chief made of clay a model of the llama, which looked like a camel. "And this was the second indication," says Las Casas, "which Vasco Nuñez received of the riches and the country of Peru."

Soon after this Balboa set out on his return to Darien. Pursuing a somewhat different route, and meeting with several new tribes from whom he extracted the usual tribute of gold, he reached Darien on the 19th of January, 1514. Here all the inhabitants turned out to do him honor, who had not only discovered the South Sea, but who had brought back such a quantity of gold, such rich pearls, and so many Indian slaves. Having put aside the king's share of all this, with two hundred pearls as a special gift to his majesty, Balboa generously divided the booty even among those who had remained behind. A long letter was also written to the king, describing the discoveries he had made, and proudly recording the fact that in all his battles with the Indians he had not lost a single man. This letter, from which Balboa expected so much, was entrusted to Arbolanche, a faithful friend, who in the month of March set sail for Spain.

The little settlement now began to enjoy life. Sweet was the rest after such labors. The rich soil brought forth abundantly, and the once-dreaded famine now seemed only an evil dream. But the peaceful life was soon to be rudely disturbed by news from Spain.

CHAPTER IV

THE GOVERNMENT OF PEDRARIAS

IT will be remembered that Arbolanche, the bearer of pearls and of the news of the discovery of the South Sea, did not sail from Darien until nearly two months after Balboa returned from his famous expedition. This delay, the cause of which is unknown, was fatal to the interests of Balboa. Laden with splendid gifts, Arbolanche received a royal welcome and turned the tide of court favor to Balboa's side. Unfortunately, however, the importunities of Enciso had already been only too successful.

Another governor had been sent out to Darien before the arrival of the tardy messenger. This was Pedro Arias de Avila, generally known as Pedrarias. Over seventy years of age, the new governor had won the title of El Justador, the Jouster, by the exploits of his youth, and was to gain the further title of Furor Domini among the monks of the New World. A stern, relentless old servant of the king he was. Fiske calls him "one of those two-legged tigers of whom Spain had so many at that time." It boded ill for Balboa that this stern old tyrant, with the banished Enciso as alguacil mayor, should be sent out to call him to account for his misdeeds.

The company that attended the new governor was perhaps the largest and the most important that ever left Spain for the New World. Seville was at the time filled with disbanded soldiers, who were only too eager to exchange war

on the continent of Europe for war with the weak Indian tribes of the New World, whose plunder would furnish rich booty and easy fame. Fifteen hundred men, some counted among the nobility of Spain, embarked on the expedition. If the vessels could have contained them, there would have been two thousand. Nor were the spiritual needs of the savages forgotten; Juan de Quevedo accompanied the expedition as bishop of the colony. More attention than usual, moreover, was given to the instructions governing the relations of the colonists with the Indians. The latter were to be won over to Christianity by kind treatment, by honesty, and truthfulness. Unless they attacked the Christians, no war should be waged against them. And for fear the colonists, in their desire to obtain slaves, would find aggression, as so many other colonists have found it, where there was none, the king advised that war should not be undertaken without the consent of the bishop and his clergy, who would be less moved by passion and self-interest.

In Hispaniola the peaceable Indians had been apportioned (repartimiento) to the Spaniards as serfs, and had been so cruelly worked that thousands of them died. To the new governor, therefore, the king gave elaborate instructions on this subject. The Indians might be used as personal servants, but must be well treated. It was preferable, however, to arrange with the chiefs to furnish a quota of their tribes, to serve the Spaniards and to be changed from time to time. If no such arrangement could be effected, the Indians must be required to pay tribute. Permission, however, was given to enslave without formality all cannibals (a corruption of Caribs or Caribales), who seem to have been regarded as the natural enemies of mankind.

At a later period the natives of Europe could base their right to dispossess the Indians of their lands upon the dictum of the great authority on international law, Vattel, who said: "The unsettled habitation of Indians in those unsettled regions cannot be counted a true and legal